The Justification of a Robbery – From the Bird's Nest

[NewsCopy]

Too many are suggesting the guys in the striped shirts aren't to blame

The rest of the story
ESPN 1420

[Turbine]

Drop the Mic!

[CajunVic]

“There might have been other things which cost the Saints a victory. But there's only ONE possible way the Rams get to the Super Bowl.”

This about sums it up in the most concise fashion.

[CajunSaint]

well said, jaybird!

[SlickRick]

Best take yet!

[AirBill]

If you haven't read Foote's column on this from last week, it's well worth your time:

https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/...ce/2649536002/

[AirBill]

Another good one:

https://boston.cbslocal.com/2019/01/...l-forever-nfl/

[NOCajun]

Found this on Facebook...

I did not write this, but it sums it up perfectly....

Dear Rest of the Country,

You Don’t Understand Us and You Probably Never Will

I don't expect anyone other than New Orleans Saints fans to relate to this. It's a sport, a game. We all get that. Life is about MUCH more important issues. New Orleans is a problem-ridden city. From corrupt politicians and a historically poor education system, through impassable streets and neglected, failing infrastructure across crime plagued communities, it is somewhat miraculous that New Orleans survives. But it does. It does because, in spite of its many challenges, if you stay here long enough, New Orleans grips a part of your soul that you didn't know existed. Something within its uniqueness compels you to stay in spite of everything in your brain that tells you to leave. While we may argue and disagree with each other about our problems, there is a momentary and practically spiritual truce that occurs on Sundays in football season.

For decades, the city's major sports franchise posted losing season after losing season. As the losses mounted, it became a running joke that the team was a proper reflection of the city’s seemingly limitless capacity to avoid progress. And then, of course, came hurricane Katrina, the ultimate kick in the gut that, for New Orleanians, translated into an overt message that it might finally be time to surrender. The city plunged into chaos and despair. Leadership was scant. The city’s iconic centerpiece, the Louisiana Super Dome, was mangled, its roof ripped and stained, images of stranded citizens surrounding the Dome’s outdoor pavilion forever etched in the history of the city. Like many of its citizens, the Saints were sent packing, spending an entire season as a road team and the city, although rebuilding, lost its panache. It couldn’t helped be noticed and felt that, if you packaged up the sum of these events, the citizens of New Orleans had mentally surrendered to the notion of being “losers.”

To the rest of the country, the return of the Saints to the Super Dome meant not much of anything. To New Orleans, it meant EVERYTHING. The Saints………back in the Dome…….in the heart of the city……served as a rallying cry to unite the community and lift spirits, a subtle suggestion that maybe, just maybe, we weren’t losers after all. After handling all of the punches akin a prize fighter in the 12th round, we were ready to get back up, raise our hands, and declare “you are NOT getting rid of us this way.”

The Saints and its citizens are connected in a way you’ll never understand, unless you’ve lived it. When they play, we lose sight of the things that divide us and embrace the things we share. The Super Bowl trip and ultimate championship was celebrated in a uniquely New Orleans way………tears were shed, strangers embraced in hugs, we partied without destroying our city, and we threw a parade like no one else does. What that felt like, what it tasted like, is something we want to feel and taste again. Last season, all systems were “go” until that fateful day in Minnesota. But that was the game of football. While it hurt and was disappointing, we eventually laughed it off the way we used to laugh off the multitudes of creative ways the Saints of the 70’s and 80’s could manufacture to lose a game.

Yesterday was different. We can’t and won’t laugh this off. At least, not anytime soon, if ever at all. And while we understand the rest of you find it silly and suggestive of misguided priorities, we take it personally. Plain and simple, we were robbed. That two seasoned officials could simultaneously miss simultaneous pass interference and helmet-to-helmet penalties is unconscionable. That there is no recourse to right the wrong makes us bitter. The NFL knows there is nothing we can do about it, so it will do nothing about it but shrug its shoulders and say “oh well, that’s the game.” They’ll tell us about missed opportunities and poor clock management. None of that will explain the unexplainable. And so, justifiably, we’re ____ed. We request that you give us time and distance to heal. We are kind to strangers and welcome them with a hug and comfort food. But we don’t enjoy being treated disrespectfully. So, yes it is a sport, a game and there are more important issues. But here, the Saints are New Orleans and New Orleans is the Saints. We succeed and we fail together. Who Dat Nation, keep your heads up. We’ll be back. We’ve been kicked in the gut before. They can steal a game from our city, but they can never steal our city’s soul. And while the rest of the world will never get what that means, we know.

[JamesTheJeweler]

Well said Jay.....excellent!